Eternal Publishment

[image source from Atheist Central]

Ray Comfort posted a question for the atheist. Should this man be punished?

I would also like to post the same questions to religious members of the society. Should this man be punished?

If yes, how? If no, why?

My feeling so far

I have started this blog about 1 month ago. During this interval, I was constantly reflecting on the following questions:

1. Does god exist?
2. Does our moral system need a god?
3. What's the god in Old Testament like?
4. Can the Bible form a healthy, sound and reasonable base on which modern moral system can base?

My answer so far:
1. No.
2. No.
3. Very bad.
4. No, definitely NOT.

What if you were wrong?

In debates, I was often asked what if I were wrong?

I based my atheism on reasoning.

1. There are many religions which claim their god is the true god. So, I have a problem in choosing whose god to believe.
2. There is absolutely no evidence which convinces me that there is a god. If you have one, I would love to hear from you.
3. For those who argue that evolution cannot result in complex organism such as human, so there must be a god to create us in the first place. I would like to know your answer to "who created god?"
4. If there were a god, I would definitely believe in one who is better than the one described in the old testament.

Now, let me ask the same question to you, especially those evangelists preaching about your god. What if you were wrong? When did you last check whether what you are preaching is true?

You may argue that what you believe is true because the Bible said so AND the Bible is the words of god. Did you check that the Bible is REALLY the words of god, not just imagination of some men died thousands of years ago? If you have done that, please send me some proof. Again I am open for you to convince.

在辯論中，我常常被問"如果我是錯了,會如何？"

我的無神論是根據邏輯和推理。

1 有許多宗教聲稱它們的神是真正的神。所以，我不知道應信哪一個神。
2 直至現在沒有任何證據證明神的存在。如果有，我會非常樂意聽你的。
3 對於那些認為誰進化不能創作人這樣複雜的機體，因此必須有一個神來創造我們,我想知道“誰創造神”
4 如果有一個神，我肯定認為這個神會優於舊約所述的一個。

現在，讓我問你同樣的問題給。如果你錯了,會如何？上一次你什麼時候檢查你的說教是否正確的？

你可能會爭辯說，因為聖經是這麼說的和聖經是神的話。你什麼時候審查了聖經真的是神的話，不只是一些幾千年前人的想像？如果你已經做了這點，請給我一些證據。

The best caller ever

The caller to this TV program asked two questions and both times he correctly answered his own questions. ;-)

Vatican Goes Solar with $1.6 Million Array!

Glad to know:



More photos

Genesis 3: God punishes all mankind for the disobedience of two

In my first reading of Genesis 3, I pointed out the lack of "kindness" and "love" of the god in this myth. I felt uneasy of the concept of "original sin". Here is why from the post linked in the title:

Let’s say your grandfather is the worst man in the world. He raped and killed a thousand women and the truth finally came out. The judge pronounces the sentence: yes, this man must die, but not just him — his sons, daughters, and grandchildren must be killed as well. We would scream, “Injustice!” and remove him from office.

5 moral pillars

Although this TED talk focuses on the difference between liberals and conservatives. About 5min into the talk, Jonathan Haidt listed 5 moral pillars that he found in different cultures and group.

Genesis 16

I am sure bible is written by man. Woman and servant are just properties. Ladies, let me just translate into today's language and see if can agree on the moral values given in this chapter.

Abram has no child. Sarai, his wife, gave her maid (Hagar) to him in order to have a child. After having a child, Hagar despised her mistress. When Sarai told her husband that, Abram told Sarai to do whatever she liked to do on Hagar. Being treated badly, Hagar escaped but was told by god to go back and submit to her authority.

In today's moral standard, Abram, although his wife did not have a child, took a maid as wife. That is adultery!

Sarai treated her maid as a property which can be given to her husband. God told Hagar to submit to her mistress. That's is slavery in plain text.

Our moral standard has advanced. Bible can no longer be the basis of any moral discussion!

Genesis 15

version 9;

So He said to him, “Bring Me a three year old heifer, and a three year old female goat, and a three year old ram, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon.”

This god is truly and surely suffering from serious inferiority complex. If god has really created the Universe and man, why is he so unsure as to constantly require reaffirmation from his own creation?

I guess god just like blood!

Genesis 13, 14

Nothing I would say about these two chapters.

The Worst of Sins

From Atheist Central.

Despite the name of the blog, Atheist Central is a Christian promoting blog. In this post, Ray Comfort has the honesty to point out "83 percent, of public school and private religious school students admitted to lying to their parents about something significant, compared to 78 percent for those attending independent non-religious schools." He blames the lack of fear of god.

One of the commenter points out the truth:

Looks like the fear of God isn't working in the religious schools.

Could this possibly be due to the fact that we get our morals from our parents, and not from the bible?

Score one for secularism. [my emphasis]

Texas man says God told him to hit woman's car

The whole news story quoted below with my highlight.

The driver of a pickup that struck a woman’s car on San Antonio's South Side on Friday morning is being evaluated by psychiatrists because he thinks God told him to drive in excess of 100 mph to take the other car off the road, police said.

The bizarre incident that shut down southbound U.S. Highway 281 above the Medina River happened about 7:25 a.m.

“He just said God said she wasn’t driving right, and she needed to be taken off the road,” said Lt. Kyle Coleman of the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office.

The woman was driving her sedan northbound when the pickup rear-ended her vehicle. The pickup’s driver told deputies that was driving in excess of 100 mph at the time, Coleman said. The impact caused both vehicles to spin across a median before they came to a stop along a barrier in the southbound lanes. No other vehicles were involved.

Though both vehicles were badly damaged, the drivers suffered minor injuries.

“God must have been with them, ’cause any other time, the severity of this crash, it would have been a fatal,” Coleman said.

The woman was taken to a hospital as a precaution, while the pickup driver was taken for psychiatric evaluation.

Police did not find evidence of alcohol or drug use by either driver, nor did the pickup driver specify for police how the woman's driving was unsatisfactory.

There are three people involved here; the pickup driver, the woman and the sheriff.

The driver, as a result of belief in God,was taken to undergoing psychiatric evaluations. The woman, the victim, might have suffered a shock and has a damaged car because someone else believed in a non-existence God. The sheriff has become a joke claiming the God has helped the save the man and woman. [If god really exist and is almighty, should s/he stop the action in the first place?]

我在上述新聞報導增加了粗體。

在此事件中,有3人:司機，女子及警長。

由於對上帝的信仰，司機被送往精神病院進行評價。女子，受害人，因為別人相信一個不存在的上帝遭受多餘的損失。聲稱上帝拯救了司機和女人,警長成為了一個笑話。 [如果上帝真的存在，並且是萬能的，是不是應該將防止事故擺在首位？ ]

"Happy Holidays" or "Merry Christmas"?

The title link to a news about 1 year ago asking should we say "Happy Holidays" or "Merry Christmas"?

Here are a few youTube videos on the subject recorded in 2007.

Faith and Terrorism

Washington post has a series of articles (from a panel) trying to give advice to their President-elect on how to confront religious extremism and terrorism, I particularly like Matt Maher's view point:

to associate deep religious fervor with being the sole inspiration for something that is also socio-politically motivated, is wrong [my emphasis]

The root of the problem (if there is one) comes from the injustice the opposed people feel.

The Christian Proselytizer Questionnaire

The title of this post link to a questionnaire. The original author asks Christian evangelist to answer all 154 questions before s/he would consider converting to a Christian faith.

I will set the bar lower. If anyone can answer 20 of these 154 questions with clear simple English (or Chinese) and with sound logic, I would convert.

Anyone like to take up the challenge? Post your response as comment here.

標題鏈接到一個問卷。如果基督教傳道可以回答所有的問題,原作者會考慮信基督教。

我將要求降低。如果有人能夠明確的, 用正確邏輯和簡單英文（或中文）回答其中20個問題，我會考慮轉換。

你願意接受接受這挑戰？

Prayer vs. Hard Work

from Friendly Atheist

Genesis 12

source http://kingjbible.com/genesis/12.htm

What is our relationship with our wives? Is my wife my property or partner?

According to verse 12, Abram treated his wife more like a property, may be used to trade for shelter and other pleasure. He is happy to let his wife to serve Pharaoh as "wife".

妻子是財產或夥伴？

對亞伯蘭,妻子是一個財產，可用於兌換住房和其他享受。他很高興地讓他的妻子擔任法老王的“妻子” 。

Genesis 11

The story of Genesis really describes a very bad god. If moral standard were based on religion such as those that based on old testament, we would all be in stone age still.

Because "now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them" (verse 6), god decided to confuse man's language so that they will not understand one another’s speech.

I really cannot understand the motive. If I were the creator of something intelligent, would I like to see my creation furnish to its full potential? Is god afraid of man creating something? What would that be? The truth that god actually does not exist?

創世記描述的是一個非常壞的神。如果道德標準是基於舊約,我們都將仍在石器時代。

因為以後他們所要作的事就沒有不成就的了, 神就使天下人的言語變亂.

我真的無法理解神的動機。如果我是創作者，我會希望我的創作能充分發揮其潛力？神就是怕人類的創造？或怕我們發現真相--神實際上並不存在？

THANK GOODNESS!

In 2006, Philosopher Dan Dennett was admitted into hospital in an emergency. In his own words:

I was rushed by ambulance to a hospital where it was determined by c-t scan that I had a "dissection of the aorta"—the lining of the main output vessel carrying blood from my heart had been torn up, creating a two—channel pipe where there should only be one. Fortunately for me, the fact that I'd had a coronary artery bypass graft seven years ago probably saved my life, since the tangle of scar tissue that had grown like ivy around my heart in the intervening years reinforced the aorta, preventing catastrophic leakage from the tear in the aorta itself. After a nine-hour surgery, in which my heart was stopped entirely and my body and brain were chilled down to about 45 degrees to prevent brain damage from lack of oxygen until they could get the heart-lung machine pumping, I am now the proud possessor of a new aorta and aortic arch, made of strong Dacron fabric tubing sewn into shape on the spot by the surgeon, attached to my heart by a carbon-fiber valve that makes a reassuring little click every time my heart beats.

In the wake of his epiphany, he said "thank goodness". In his own words again, "there is a lot of goodness in this world, and more goodness every day, and this fantastic human-made fabric of excellence is genuinely responsible for the fact that I am alive today. It is a worthy recipient of the gratitude I feel today, and I want to celebrate that fact here and now."

To his religious friends who have prayed from him, he has gladly forgiven them. The reasons he said he has forgiven those who prayed for him are clearly explained in his article. I cannot do justice to summarize them here. For those who are time-poor, read the last 4 paragraphs of his article linked to this title.

Bible Contradiction?

Ray Comfort posted an explanation to the contradiction that Adam, after eating the forbidden fruit, lived to 930 years.

Adam died the moment he sinned and broke fellowship with God--the Source of all life. At that second, death entered his body and he began to degenerate (to age). The Bible also tells us the a “day” to the Lord is a thousand years to humanity (see 2 Peter 3:8), and Adam died within that “day.”

So, Ray is telling us that god actually created the universe in 7000 human years and then he took a rest. I suppose we should have a Sunday (rest) every 6000 years!